I lurked there and occasionally posted in there, and as interesting as some of that stuff was, I wouldn't miss it if it is determined to not be worth the trouble to have it here. True, that with the election a month away, it's relevant to most people now, but once the election is over, alot of the relevance that is felt now will be gone for another 3 or 4 years. Plus, as a regular member, it is easy enough to ignore the nonsense that periodically sprouts up, but I try to keep in mind how I'd feel if I had to be the one to keep tabs on that nonsense.

What do you want out of Console Gold? What can we do to faciliate you? (within reason)

Allow the discussion of religion and politics. Everything else has been done already, and in a better and faster way than GG ever could.

I would prefer one sub-forum for really Everything But Gaming, with no a priori ban on any topic. That was by far the best setup, although a separate R&P forum would be acceptable too, I guess. Some people always mistake discord for negativity.

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What do you want ressurected out of Gone Gold? What worked? What didn't?

The people worked. The moderation worked. The rest was pretty much broken.

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Can I count on your support with the ads? I don't have a lot but they support the site. (and the massive increase in traffic)

What does that mean? Do I have to turn on images in my browser? Do I have to click them? I'd do both.

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If we invest a ton of time, will everyone up and leave? There was a mass influx of people and with splinter forums opening up there are a lot of ways out. I'm loathe to invest my staff's time to build this place into what you want if everyone will say thank you and leave. I'm not looking for a membership oath, but some of my staff are getting a vibe that folks might be about to jump ship off CG again.

I will leave if R&P remain banned. I liked GG because it was one stop to read about every topic that interests me, and the possibility to discuss everything besides gaming is the conditio sine qua non for any site that I'd accept as the spiritual successor of GG.

I realise that this is a somewhat unpleasant situation. Obviously there must have been a reason why CG split off from GG in the first place (if that is what happened, I'm not really sure), and now demographic pressure is urging it into a direction it might not want to take. For that reason, I first thought that refounding the GG forum in its entirety elsewhere would have been preferable for all involved parties. But now, any such moves would fragment the already diminished community further, and that could mean the end.

I want my home back. I know it's not possible, but it is what I want. As it is, this appears to be a great new home - KD the love and hard work you and the other staffers have put in looks great. The way you have bent over backwards to be accommodating is amazing. I can't wait to see what else you have up your sleeve. I also love seeing some of the old familiar names who hadn't posted in awhile come back. All in all major props to all of the CG staff!

I am mainly a PC gaming news ho, and don't get to game as much as I'd like, but I do own an Xbox and a few games, but I do appreciate PC content more.

Regarding Ads - I'll try to remeber to click - though I'll probably spend more time in the forums, and that does make clicking Ads tougher - maybe an unobtrusive yet relevant ad on the forum index?

Back to reality

Gold Guide - YES! I loved the links to all the reviews and fansites, as well as patches etc. I tend to wait to pick up games, and it was SOOOOO nice to have. I was really bummed when Andy couldn't keep it up (couldn't blame him either, but I used that thing all the time). where exactly is it here? Ah, I found it (I think) - Advanced Search - right? ONe thing from GG I did like was the way that you could view all entries and scroll through them - found some interesting games that way. As well as the new and updated blurbs.

Would love to see PC games added to the database though converting the old GG might be tough.... PC games need it more, due to the prevalence of patches, and other post-release info/updates - consoles will get like this too, in the next gen, I believe...

Weekly values - YES! I'm lazy about looking these things up, and there must be a lot more who are too. (JMdiller - I saw your post and wanted to thank you for the time and effort you put in when it got shifted to you - it was, and is, appreciated).

dunno if Rich and Bill's 'Blogging' style can fit, but I really liked the daily anecdotes with gaming references and talk. News is nice, but the personal touch was really affecting.

Quick Takes - lift test, etc. - not as important for consoles, but I think adding a 'Manual' section to a console review is nice - is backstory laid out (unlikely), is it more than a 900 number and a epileptic seizure warning? Are the various controls and menus well laid out and easy to find for reference, without having to switch between 3-5 pages (ala Madden).

All of those resources kept me coming back again and again, especially the personal touches Rich and Bill brought to the site -- until I got sucked into the forums - then they kept me going, even after Rich, Andy, Bill and the rest of the gang couldn't provide official content. I will always thank them for that bit that brought me so many years of joy and information.

RE: the forums - don't splinter them too much - an inactive forum really bites. I'd rather have too few forum sections than too many.

R & P - boy oh boy can I believe the headache that would be for Moderators, but I really do miss it. Ran into some articles on global warming I wanted to share with the community, but couldn't, and I really felt something was missing from my life (and it really isn't that empty). However, it is sooo easy to react to an internet post in a fashion which one would never react in person, and it does tend to jack up the vitriol and gamers aren't always the best at distancing themselves from anything (why else would we be into immersive games?). I really miss it, and would love to see it back. Even if a lot of the posts end up as trash, the gems are so great that they can make it all worth it. Guido_TKP's thoughtful essay on abortion, dbt's smileys to cool things off, the periodic population debates, etc. I'll miss it if it doesn't reappear, but respect your wishes. Active mods could help to erase many of the worst offenses, but with Moderators, moderation - eh?

Major thanks once again for taking in all of us strays. Once again, kudos for a job well done!

What do you guys think of this....now this is just a brainstorm so this isn't well thought out or in any way condoned or green-lit.

What if we hosted the GG forums as an archive? We lock that shite software down and just make it a searchable archive so the data isn't lost. If somebody has a wild hair they could move the data, but it'd be accessable if we could get ahold of the data.

Here is the hitch. Its 30GB. We'd need someplace to host it and $$ to pay the cost for access. If those are donated, its free. If not, we'll have to beat the support drum. I'm listening....

I'd say that we don't need most of the forums archived. We wouldn't really need R&P archived. The trading stuff, definitely, at least long enough to port it over. I'd honestly go so far as to say we only need the -important- stuff carted over, and the rest of it can go ... well...where it already went, really.

As far as the other stuff goes, I like the people from GG, and most of what I liked about the forums are here also. I'll help as I can, clicking on ads, and I've already offered to help with PC gaming news reporting if anyone wants me. The main thing I request is that we keep the front page active, as that was the big thing wearing down over at GG, from what I kept reading on the forums. That's nothing against anyone, that's just a fact of life. And I'm planning on staying, definitely, if it wasn't obvious

A politics forum would be great. I can understand if you don't want to moderate it (*I* wouldn't), but maybe you'll find the ex-GG-R&P-mods willing to do so. It'll keep the community closer together, I think, if you can cater to as much of their daily needs as possible.

As for political debate injecting hate into other forums, I don't know (I registered on GG after the split), but I found GG to be a very nice place.

Whichever way you decide, I'll certainly stay here if the PC section stays alive. You and the crew here do an amazing job.

1.) What do you want out of Console Gold? What can we do to faciliate you?

2.) What do you want resserected out of Gone Gold? What worked? What didn't?

3.) Can I count on your support with the ads? I don't have a lot but they support the site.

4.) If we invest a ton of time, will everyone up and leave?

1/ PC gaming and Console gaming in separate forums, and in separate sections on the frontpage / with filters on the front page. I'm a PC only gamer so far, and would rather not have to go through lots of console stuff to pick out the PC-related news / threads.

One forum for PC gaming seems fine to me, as you have it now - if it gets really busy, consider splitting it like GG did, or some other way, but not in too many forums - I don't want to have to look through a dozen subforums, each with only a few interesting threads in it; I'd rather have one or a few forums, each with half a page or more of interesting threads.

And I see no reason why a gaming site should have a Religion and Politics forum - surely, there are other forums dedicated to that kind of discussion. I never visited the one on GG.

Oh - and the thing I miss the most so far from the GG forums from a purely technical viewpoint - a "Jump to new posts" link when one opens a thread, to easily find the first unread post.

2/ What worked was mostly the forums - they were the only forums I had found that seemed to have much interesting content to me and my gaming interests (being a RPG and Strategy gamer with a bit of everything else thrown in). This became painfully obvious the past few days while GG was down and I was browsing other forum, which either had too much twitch gaming focus for my taste, too much off-topic silliness, or people posting in a language only bearing some resemblance to English.

3/ Not really, unfortunately. I've never been one for clicking ads unless I'm genuinely interested in them.

4/ I won't leave, unless everybody else does. So far, I'm amazed at the welcome, and the accomodations made - keep a separate PC gaming forum with intelligent discussion in it, and I'll be happy to read it.

If you start covering PC games on the frontpage, either with a filter, or with a separate section / subpage for PC games, that is likely to get added to my daily reading list as well, and until then, the forums here seem likely to be my new home.

Thanks, again, for the new home. You've already done more than most people, for example, Mr Smart has not even returned my email (I kid I kid)

Well, I can only speak for myself.

In my humble opinion you do not need to add any front page PC content changes, (ie = add any news staff or add to existing staff's duties) For a while anyway, because I've gotten to the point where I don't read "Official Reviews" . I just come to the forums for the give-and-take debate about a game. The forums serve as news and reviews without any 'deadlines'. GoneGold's front page was 'under the weather' for so long I stopped going.

Oh, and if you could shelter me from the word "Console" I'll be as happy as a pig in slop :mrgreen: Maybe by use of a cookie setting

Logged

Dump a bag of Skittles in the toilet. Flush. Watch a three second NASCAR race.

2.) Console Gold is Console Gold. That means that we aren't going to rip up the floorboards and become something we are not. We'll open new forums, we'll make concessions, we'll expand. We will bring on new staff and cover PC gaming with PC reviews, PC news, with seperated PC forums and adapt to the needs of the community, but at the end of the day, we are still Console Gold.

My think exactly. My fear is that a massive influx of PC gamers warps your intent, your purpose. Even though I rarely was into heavy discussion about PC games at GG it was the bond for me. The defining point of commonality.

So while I think it's great that you are hospitable, this won't be my new couch I crash on. Thank you for the offer. You guys are truly ladies and gentlemen.

I was drawn to GG a long time ago mainly for the upcoming game information, the quick reviews and the Gold Guide. I originally stayed away from the forums for the first couple of years because I really wasn't interested, but once I tried them, they became a second home to me. Then when I started participating, they became more and more apart of my daily routine.

Now, I'm looking for a place where everybody knows my name, and they're always glad I came...

Actually, I'm looking for great forums where I can learn about upcoming games, discuss and review current games, hook up with other players in MP and also talk about other subjects (including religion and politics.)

I like what I see here and I never really knew how much I missed having a site that was updated regularly. Thanks for taking all of us in.

I just wanted to chime in to say that I also miss the R&P forum and would love to have it here. As mentioned above, GG was the one-stop-shopping place because I could read about everything under the sun; having to find a new forum just for politics would suck. And frankly, I think some of the best threads GG produced came from political and/or religious discussions (at least, the most intelligent and thought provoking threads).

Plus, it seems that some political discussions would be unavoidable. If the current bad on R&P remained, would all threads on Nov. 3 mentioning the election be locked? What about if someone starts a thread about something interesting that happened to them that day that involved religion? Would that be locked, too? What if Bill Clinton has a heart attack and dies? Can we not have any threads about that? At the very least, I think that some discussion of current political events should be allowed even if a seperate forum specifically for those discussions is not created.

After everything I've seen of this place, and what I know of the staff here, I'd be proud to call this my new internet home.

/me puts a stake in the ground

Personally, I think you guys have already gone above and beyond the call of duty in a big way, and after more time to think on it, my feelings have changed on a few things:

At first, when it was all going down, my initial reaction was "we've gotta CLONE GoneGold, stat!" -- I think a lot of people felt/feel that way, because it was our home, and because a lot of us were addicted to it. After it's had some time to sink in, I realize GG is dead now, and as MHS said, it's the end of an era. We shouldn't ask that an established site change it's stripes to accommodate us.

My initial reaction was "let's get R&P here quick, so we don't lose anyone" -- Now I realize we are going to lose people. I also see that even if you did add R&P, it would be under reluctance, and as an accommodation. I don't think it's right for us to ask that of CG.

I'm glad you guys added black & gold colors here, that was very nice, but for me, it wasn't a brighness/eyes thing... it was part of that "cloning GG" thing. After a while, I felt it wasn't right, and went back to subSilver.

I'll be happy here, especially if a good many of my friends and aquaintences from GG remain.

1.) What do you want out of Console Gold? What can we do to faciliate you?Most of which has been done. I am manly a pc gamer, so the new pc forum is great.

2.) What do you want resserected out of Gone Gold? Nothing. GoneGold was a completely different site, this is Console Gold!

3.) Can I count on your support with the ads? I don't have a lot but they support the site.Yes you can.

4.) If we invest a ton of time, will everyone up and leave? I am here to stay unless the forums turn in to a adolescent flaming war. I wish I would have know about this site before, I enjoyed reading the write up on MK: Deception and look forward to reading more.

Plus, it seems that some political discussions would be unavoidable. If the current bad on R&P remained, would all threads on Nov. 3 mentioning the election be locked? What about if someone starts a thread about something interesting that happened to them that day that involved religion? Would that be locked, too? What if Bill Clinton has a heart attack and dies? Can we not have any threads about that? At the very least, I think that some discussion of current political events should be allowed even if a seperate forum specifically for those discussions is not created.

I'll go down your questions:

1. Yes, election mentioning would be locked, you can find other forums for that kind of talk

2. News items most likely would not be locked...however, should the talk move toward religion and what you think about it, it will be locked. Simple as that.

3. News item, it would not be blocked if any president died. However if you start down the political road and not treating them as human beings the thread would be locked.

As for your first sentence: "Plus, it seems that some political discussions would be unavoidable." Trust me, its VERY avoidable. A forum I used to moderate, which has been around longer than GG, has no religious or political talk on it and has thrived without it. In fact, most discussion in that forum is about the very thing the site is for.

The only reason you find it unavoidable is because you had it at GG. Like I said in previous threads, you can go to Google and do a search for a political forum or go to Popehat, which some GGers have started up. It's as simple as that, I don't want the extra moderation and adding an R&P forum would create more moderation that is not needed.

Last I checked, we were a gaming site that happens to have an Off-Topic forum so people don't have to talk about just games. However, I don't want political and religious talk here, it turns people away. I also don't want it in its own separate forum just to appease a vocal minority. The options are out there for you, you just won't find them here.

I for one plan on staying. Hell, I already have my dirty underwear stashed behind that couch Jeff is sitting on I'm finally getting into console games anyways.

Sure, I'll click on your ads, sleep with your sister or jump through hoops :wink: You all already went and created a PC gaming forum so that's cool, the only thing I can think to ask for is a 'Road to Gold' forum but it's no biggie. I also heard the php forums have a 'spoiler' button to hide spoilers- That would rock.

Sure, I'll click on your ads, sleep with your sister or jump through hoops :wink: You all already went and created a PC gaming forum so that's cool, the only thing I can think to ask for is a 'Road to Gold' forum but it's no biggie. I also heard the php forums have a 'spoiler' button to hide spoilers- That would rock.

I think you guys are doing an awesome job adjusting, and not having a R&P forum is not even close to a deal-breaker for me. As you said, we can go to several other places. Two tabs is not a big difference from one tab.

I'm sure others have mentioned this, but what happened with a PC site closing and everyone migrating to a Console-focused site seems to be appropriate considering what is happening out in the marketplace. I guess we're just going to have to deal with the new gaming economy. :o

Well, I will be blunt. If there is no R & P, I probably wont stay. Here we are, just a few days removed from having what I feel is the most intelligent, informative, and passionate (in a good way), political forum I have EVER seen, and now everyone has migrated here. Now, the powers that be, and a few members that never even posted in R & P, dont want us to have that sub forum, even though like I said, they never even went there.

Our R & P forum was extremely respectful, much more so than some of the other politics forums I had seen. Frankly, I think that many others will echo my sentiments when I say that those that dont like an R & P forum, dont have to go into it, but since so many of the old R & P guys have migrated here, it makes sense that we should get our R & P forum, but keep it moderated of course. I dont think this is too much to ask, but without it, you guys are gonna lose alot of members, many more than you think.

If it takes cash, then I volunteer to donate to get an R & P, and I feel confident many others would follow suit.

I agree with the all the sentiments here that the CG staff has been extremely hospitable and welcoming.

I would just like to say for the record that would miss R&P if it weren't allowed here. The argument that there are plenty of other places on the net to discuss politics doesn't really hold water with me, because it wasn't simply the political topics that I found interesting, but rather it was the opinions of this specific collection of people that drew me in. GG had a strong community (as CG does now) of amazing and diverse individuals, and the assembly of these various persepectives led to some very enlightening discussions in the R&P forum. Believe it or not, some of these discussions have honed my thinking about certain issues, challenged me to think more critically, and helped me come to understand that others can hold opinions that are simultaneously very different yet still equally as valid as my own. I respect the thoughts of many of my fellow GGers, and it'd be a shame if I lost access to their perspectives on more serious topics.

While I largely disagree with your refusal to set up a R+P forum, I will live with it, and demand it again some other day :p

For the GG archive/database... here's an idea... how about you set it up, and leave it open to everyone, only for a limited time, say, for two weeks or a month or something. That way we all will have a chance to go in, salvage all the threads/posts we want, and transplant them here if desired. After that is done, I don't think a GG archive will be needed much longer. This seems like a good compromise for us and money.

I, for one, don't think that CG should add a R&P forum, or bend its no-politics-and-religion rule, if that goes against the spirit of the site and the vision of the people who do the real work around here. I may not agree that allowing R&P discussion coarsens the dialogue in other forums, but clearly moderating such discussions is a completely different affair. This is clearly a well-run forum with its own tone, set in part by its leaders and in part by its long-time inhabitants. If the mods/leaders and long-time members change the place reluctantly just to keep some people, it's going to cause long-term resentment and strife. Have the forum you want to have, or what's the point?

I, for one, don't think that CG should add a R&P forum, or bend its no-politics-and-religion rule, if that goes against the spirit of the site and the vision of the people who do the real work around here. I may not agree that allowing R&P discussion coarsens the dialogue in other forums, but clearly moderating such discussions is a completely different affair. This is clearly a well-run forum with its own tone, set in part by its leaders and in part by its long-time inhabitants. If the mods/leaders and long-time members change the place reluctantly just to keep some people, it's going to cause long-term resentment and strife. Have the forum you want to have, or what's the point?

Couldnt disagree more. As I said, those that dont like to discuss politics, dont have to go in there, but I believe that alot of you against it, hadnt been in the GG R & P forum in a long time, and dont know how respectful it had became. I sure would miss my friends, miss the intelligent debate, but I just dont see staying here without a political subforum, and from talking with others privately, I am not alone in that line of thought.

I haven't been too active at GG over the past few months, but I would greatly miss not having an R & P forum. Like CC said, while there are countless other political forums on the net, it was the unique combination of people, their intelligent discourse, and a wide range of spontaneous topics that kept me coming back to GG(more than any other single forum).

I can't see how having it affects those who don't want to read or participate in it. My only concern about the R&P would be the extra effort required to moderate, and I'll completely understand if it's more work than the CG staff cares to invest. That said, I do think not having it splinters a significant portion of the GG community.

I see no reason for the CG staff to add or moderate forums they don't want to be part of their site. It would be like me asking someone nice enough to let my family move in with them after my house burned down and then me expecting them to remodel their house to suit my needs. I'm not that selfish....

I appreciate the opportunity to be part of the CG family. I never really felt like I was part of the GG family even though I was there for over 4 years and had a low member number...maybe that'll change here

Honestly, I think an R&P forum handled the way you guys handle things would work out really well, or die quickly in a blaze. I dig the no bullshit policy here, but think that a lot of R&P posters would hang themselves with that rope fairly quickly.

I sure as hell wouldn't want to moderate it.

Anyway, nice work on what you've done so far here. It's not secret that I'm not a big fan of CG in general, but I do think you guys have done an excellent job in handling the "migration."

I would like to echo the sentiments of many others when I say thanks to the CG staff for welcoming us, like refugees from Atlantis. I understand completely the intent to remain CG despite this huge influx of new blood.

I will make this my new home, because its the people that make the community, not the URL.

I would say about the new structure, rather than doing a few PC forums, I would split the gaming section into PC and Console gaming. Keep your CG gaming, as it has been working for you. I would add a PC gaming section with its own Games by title, Road to Gold, and Hardware Help. This way we don't get the Console floor muddy and people looking for PC things don't say, "What is Animal Crossing? Where is "Star Ocean"??".

Most of my early posts were about R&P. Lately I can honestly say that while I have a slight interest in that regard, I wouldn't care one way or the other about having that stuff here.

Just a personal note: I am already tired of people who were banned at GG beating the drum about things here. Regardless of when they got here.

Thanks for listening! It does feel like we are closer to the Source here, as it were.

Rhino

Logged

Dance with the Devil and the Devil doesn't change. The Devil changes you.

First, thanks for the forums. I guess we shouldn't take them for granted.

I posted this opinion elsewhere....I'll put it up here as well.

It pains me to agree with Lord E, but I do. Either keep the ban on R&P entirely or integrate those topics into your Off-Topic forum. Having a seperate R&P forum means only those with polarized views and agendas end up there and the forum quickly degenerates into an unreadable segregated cesspool with little information actually exchanged. I would much rather have the topic ban lifted and let us all pretend we are polite adults, but this is your house and if those topics are taboo, then taboo they shall be. I'm not volunteering to muck the stalls and I can understand why the moderaters would refuse the task.

Thanks again to the CG staff for being so welcoming. It's wonderful that you're willing to change your site to accomodate others. That being said, I wouldn't change it too much... you can't make everyone happy.

For R&P at GG, I lurked in it quite a bit and really appreciated the intelligent discussion. However, I know the animosity a lot of people have towards it so I don't really care one way or another. I tend to agree with Mr. Fed that it doesn't really fit the site.

So I doubt I'll be as active here as I was at GG. I'm visiting more than one forum now to see what's out there. Still, if I wasn't forum reading I'd have to be doing work, so I'll still be around :wink:.

I think things are perfect the way they are. Adding PC game forums was a logical extension of what was going on, because you were already doing PC-PR posts in the Console Games forum. However, all along there was no R&P forum at this site, and there never seemed to be a need for one with the people who were here before GG closed. I've only seen one person say "I'm leaving" if there's no R&P, and the majority of the sentiment I've seen also says "no" to R&P. Why change a good thing, especially when it means more work for the people modding the board?